An investigator examines backpacks left outside Deer Creek Middle School during the shootings. The school will remain closed today, while nearby Stony Creek Elementary will be open.

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A member of the Jefferson County sheriff's bomb squad team carefully looks over Bruco Eastwood's car in the west parking lot of Deer Creek Middle School on Wednesday afternoon. HeroesDrills helped the school's staff save lives. 5A Susan GreeneThe uneasy state of safety. column, 1B

Reagan Weber, one of the two students who was shot Tuesday at Deer Creek Middle School, was resting at home, Wednesday, February 24, 2010, with her father, sister Morgan, 17, and her friend Sydney Erickson, who was with her when the gunman fired. Judy DeHaas, The Denver Post

Bruco War Eagle Eastwood said he "went weak in the knees" when police came to his home Tuesday night. "Nobody wants to hear their son or daughter caused someone to be hurt."

War Eagle Eastwood, the father of Deer Creek Middle School shooting suspect Bruceo Eastwood, talks about his son at his . ranch in Hudson.

JEFFERSON COUNTY — The 14-year-old boy critically wounded in Tuesday’s shooting at Deer Creek Middle School was recovering Wednesday, while Jefferson County authorities plunged deeper into the motives of the troubled drifter they say is responsible for shooting that teen and one other.

Matthew Thieu, who suffered rib and lung injuries in the shooting, was upgraded to good condition today at Children’s Hospital in Aurora. In a statement Wednesday, Thieu’s mother, Pattie, said her son is doing well and “is in God’s hands.”

“We want to thank the community, our family and friends for their outpouring of support,” Pattie Thieu said.

The second student injured in the shooting, 13-year-old Reagan Weber, relaxed with friends at home Wednesday while wearing a bulky bandage on her right arm, which was injured by bullet fragments.

“She’s got a big bandage on her arm, but no permanent damage,” said Craig Weber, Reagan’s father.

It is likely the bullet hit something nearby before shattering into fragments and hitting her arm, Weber said.

A Jefferson County judge ordered the alleged shooter, Bruco “Bo” Strong Eagle Eastwood, held on $1 million bail. Eastwood, 32, kept his hands folded in front of him and said nothing Wednesday during his brief court appearance, for which he appeared via closed-circuit video from the Jefferson County jail.

It remains unclear what drove Eastwood, who authorities say once briefly attended Deer Creek, to sign in at the school Tuesday, visit briefly, then return and open fire outside with a bolt-action hunting rifle.

Walked into school briefly

Seeking answers, Jefferson County investigators gathered evidence at Eastwood’s father’s home in Hudson, where Eastwood had most recently worked as a ranch hand. The detectives removed bagfuls of videos, journals Eastwood kept and photos of teenagers Eastwood apparently corresponded with on the Internet, said Eastwood’s father, Bruco War Eagle Eastwood.

In recent weeks, the elder Eastwood said, his son had become increasingly disturbed, yelling at imaginary friends and tuning out of conversations until the elder Eastwood said he would shake his son and shout, “Are you there, Bo?”

The elder Eastwood said his son took the bolt-action Winchester .30-06 rifle believed to have been used in the shooting without permission. The elder Eastwood said he kept the gun, which he inherited from his father, in a case, but when he looked for it after learning of Tuesday’s shooting, it was gone.

Before the shooting Tuesday, Bo Eastwood entered the school and signed in at the front desk, after engaging in some conversation with office staff, Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said. Kelley said investigators were still trying to determine what Eastwood said to school employees and how much, if at all, he walked around the building.

Kelley said Eastwood left the building quietly, without being told to do so. She said the shooting started outside the school shortly thereafter. School teachers and staff members — led by math teacher David Benke — quickly tackled the shooter and wrested away his rifle but not before he could get off the shots that wounded the two students.

Benke, speaking at a news conference Wednesday morning, said that split-second delay continued to trouble him.

“It bothers me that I was a little bit late,” Benke said. “It bothers me that that he got a second shot off.”

“These kids are my kids”

The school staffers credited extensive emergency drills — something that has become standard for teachers and administrators since the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School — for quickening their response to Tuesday’s violence.

Assistant principal Becky Brown, who grabbed the rifle away from the shooter after Benke and teacher Norm Hanne tackled him, said running toward the suspect came without hesitation.

“These kids are my kids,” she said.

“It’s my school,” she added, “and David was out there and he’s my colleague.”

Benke, too, said courage came without question in the moments after he saw the shooter taking aim at students. He said he remembered his training, and he remembered how he had vowed to do whatever he could if he were ever confronted with a dangerous situation.

“What was going through my mind,” Benke said, “was that I promised.”

The school will remain closed today. Nearby Stony Creek Elementary School, which was closed Wednesday, will reopen today.

Deer Creek principal Rob Hoover said counselors are available for students troubled by the shooting, and he, staff and students are hoping for Thieu’s and Weber’s quick recovery.

“Obviously, our prayers and thoughts are with those families too,” he said.

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